Bandhan Bank


Bandhan Bank Ltd. is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal. Bandhan Bank is present in 34 out of 37 states and Union Territories of India. Presently Bandhan Bank has 4,559 banking outlets pan-India serving more than 2.03 crore customers.
On June 17, 2015, the Reserve Bank of India granted the universal banking licence to Bandhan Bank. The same year, on August 23, the bank started operations with 501 branches, 50 ATMs and 2,022 DSC.
The bank has mobilised deposits over Rs.60,610 crore and its total advances stand at Rs. 74,331 crore, as on June 30, 2020.

History

Bandhan started in 2001 as a not-for-profit enterprise providing microloans to the underprivileged sections of the society. It focussed on financial inclusion and women empowerment through sustainable livelihood creation. In 2006, Bandhan acquired an NBFC to scale up its microfinance activities. It turned into an NBFC-MFI to further its core objective of financial inclusion. In 2010, Bandhan was recognised as the largest MFI in the country.
On April 2, 2014, Bandhan received an in-principle approval for setting up a universal bank. On June 17, 2015, the Reserve Bank of India granted the universal banking licence to Bandhan Bank. Two months later, on August 23, Bandhan Bank commenced operations. Its public shareholders then included International Finance Corporation; an arm of GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore; and Small Industries Development Bank of India.
The then Hon’ble Union Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley, inaugurated the bank on August 23, 2015, in Kolkata, making Bandhan Bank the first bank to be set up in Eastern India post-Independence.
On March 27, 2018, Bandhan Bank got listed on the bourses and became the 8th largest bank in India by market capital, on the day of listing itself.

Microfinance

Bandhan started its microfinance operations from Bagnan, a small village 60 km from Kolkata. The model followed was individual lending through group formation. In 18 years, Bank has presence in 34 states and union territories with special focus on the eastern and underdeveloped states of Northeast India.

Investors

Bandhan Bank is a subsidiary of Bandhan Financial Holdings Limited. BFHL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandhan Financial Services Limited. BFSL's public shareholders include International Finance Corporation, IFC FIG Investment Company, Small Industries Development Bank of India, and Caladium Investment Pte Ltd., a company managed by GIC Special Investments Private Limited.

Board of directors

The board of directors included Harun Rashid Khan, former deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India, for a five-year term between 2011 and 2016.

Initial public offering and stock exchange listing

Bandhan Banks's equity shares are listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. The IPO got oversubscribed by almost 15 times at the end of the three-day long issue. On its stock exchange debut, the equity opened at Rs 487.33 on the National Stock Exchange and closed at Rs 476.85, 27 percent over its issue price of Rs 375.

Merger

In January 2019 Bandhan Bank initiated the process of acquisition of GRUH Finance, a Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited backed housing finance company in the share-swap deal by way of Scheme of amalgamation. RBI accorded its no-objection to the Scheme on March 14, 2019. The bank has also received no-objection on the Scheme from the BSE and the NSE on April 3, 2019. On April 15, 2019, the Competition Commission of India has also approved the Scheme. On July 30, 2019, bank received the approval of its shareholders for the proposed acquisition of GRUH Finance. Further the bank obtained the approval of NCLT, Bench at Kolkata on September 27, 2019. Then GRUH Finance officially merged into Bandhan Bank on October 17, 2019, and the combined balance sheet in the bank's Q2 results crossed the Rs.1 lakh crore mark.